If a well-known German media opponent of the Iraq war is reporting cautious optimisim, well, it better be time to start taking all these positive reports more seriously. I was so damned surprised I read the whole article. It most definitely is not a "rah-rah" report from someone co-opted by the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. Instead, it's a very even-handed "warts-and-all" report that still manages to be quite plainly hopeful.

The contrast with how the media's reporting in Vietnam changed as that war progressed is quite instructive. Little surprise then that nobody seems to have drawn the comparison explicitly.